Tea-stall owner ready to die than give up space

Pramod is happy that justice has been done with a Sessions court convicting Agarwal and his four of his men of conspiracy to kill him.

He is tense,worried about a possible attack even as the punishment for Agarwal and his associates is expected on Friday. But he refuses to give up. He feels that his stoic resistance has finally paid dividends.

Police officials familiar with the case recall that Agarwal,who owned two multistoried outlets at 7 Jagmohan Mullick Road and 9 Jagmohan Mullick Road in Burrabazzar area — the business core of Kolkata — intended to build a multistoried food mall near this two outlets way back in 1996. Pramod’s tea stall was standing like an eyesore and also an obstacle to the mall entrance.

As per records with the Kolkata Police,Agarwal along with Arun Khandelwal,a local promoter,had started planning to construct the food mall. There were eight shops on the building premises that needed to be demolished to start the construction. Even though Agarwal succeededin luring seven shop-owners by offering each of them money — between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh — small tea-stall owners Pramod Sharma and his uncle Satyanarayan Sharma did not give in.

The gripping account of the food chain owner and his bid to capture such a small space by any means — money or muscle — tells the story of Burrabazar. Space here means money. A senior police official of the area said: “One square feet area here fetches Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000. A 6X6 tea-stall that Pramod Sharma owned would be costing anything more than Rs 8 lakh.”

Pramod was not interested to leave his 50-year-old tea stall for money that the Agarwals reportedly offered. “It had been a family business for them and his father and uncles were involved in the business,” said Uttam Mukherjee,Investigation Officer of the case.

The cut-throat business competition here brings in the other sets of people — the contract killers and goons who would extort money for protection. Almost all businessmen in this area look for protection by paying a “commission”. Agarwal started the construction for the food mall and filed a case in the city civil court against Chandrawali Singh,a 75-year-old man who was the landlord of the premises. The court gave an ejection order to the tenants of Singh. However,Pramod and his uncle Satyanarayan challenged the ejection order and filed a review petition that is still pending in the civil court. As the case was pending,Pramod could not be legally thrown out of his shop.

On February 12,2005,Pramod,then a 21-year-old,faced a big jolt when a group of anti-socials allegedly engaged by Agarwal ransacked his shop and demolished it. It was same day an officer from the court was supposed to come to see whether there are any shop-owners left in the premises where the mall would come up. “Prabhuji had to remove our stall from the area before the officer reached,” Pramod said. When Satyanarayan and another person Gopal Thakur tried to resist the goons,they were attacked with bricks and wooden planks. They asked for police help,but got a shock when Pramod and his relative Manoj Sharma were put in the lock-up.

On March 27,Satyanarayan was forcibly taken to Binani Dharamshala at 85 Pathuria Street,a km away from the tea-stall,where he was introduced to Agarwal. The meeting was mediated by the promoter of the food-mall Arun Khandelwal.

Gopal Tiwari,a local criminal,opened a briefcase in front of Satyaranayan. “The bag contained Rs 4 lakh I was told. Gopal asked me to accept the money or else I have to face dire consequences. I refused,” said the 65-year-old Satyanarayan.

“Three days later,Gopal Tiwari and Kanta Singh arrived and started firing at us from inside a Hyundai Accent (WB02L1979),” he added.

Pramod was seriously injured and taken to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where the doctors operated on his left leg. He cannot run and can walk only short distances now.

But his shop is running fine,and has become a symbol of resistance against the high and mighty.